'You're adept in breaking parties': Kushwaha attacks Nitish, seeks appointment with Shah

The RLSP, which contested on 23 seats in 2015 assembly elections, has two MLAs in the 243-member Bihar assembly.

Upendra Kushwaha., PTI IMAGE

PATNA: Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP has suffered a major jolt as both of its MLAs in Bihar are set to join Nitish Kumar's JDU, sources said on Sunday. Lalan Paswan and Sudhanshu Shekhar will soon be inducted into the JDU, they said. Shekhar was reportedly in touch with JDU vice president Prashant Kishor. The RLSP, which contested on 23 seats in 2015 assembly elections as an NDA ally, has two MLAs in the 243-member Bihar assembly. Kushwaha has accused Nitish of luring RLSP legislators in order to damage his party. "You (Nitish) are adept in breaking parties," Kushwaha tweeted adding that people are watching his actions. Before leaving for New Delhi, the RLSP chief told reporters at the airport in Patna that he had sought an appointment with BJP president Shah. He said he would apprise BJP chief Amit Shah of the "humiliation" he had suffered at the hands of Nitish. Kushwaha said he met Ram Vilas Paswan, the president LJP, earlier in the day and the latter concurred with his view that seat-sharing talks should be held at the earliest, involving all the coalition partners. This comes a day after supporters of Kushwaha took out an "aakrosh march" in Patna on to protest a statement by Bihar Chief Minister against the RLSP chief. Kushwaha, who is also the union minister of state for human resource development, has reportedly been peeved after the BJP and the JDU decided to contest an equal number of seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in the state. The state sends 40 members to Parliament and after the BJP-JDU deal, there is speculation that whether this would mean fewer seats for other allies like the RLSP and the Ramvilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). As per reports, the RLSP will be given only two seats and the LJP will be given four, while BJP and JDU will enjoy a share of 17 seats each, based on the 50-50 seat-sharing formula given by JDU and agreed by BJP. Last week, Kushwaha borrowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2015 remark over Nitish Kumar's DNA to attack the Bihar chief minister. Kushwaha reminded Nitish that Modi had made the remark in some other context but he (Nitish) had taken it as an insult to him and Bihar and asked his partymen to collect samples of hair and nail to be sent to Delhi for verifying the DNA. "We are still eagerly waiting for that DNA report. If the report is with you, please share its content. If the DNA remark had really hurt you, then what happened to the report my dear elder brother," Kushwaha said at an RLSP rally. Kushwaha’s RLSP is a part of the BJP-led alliance in Bihar JDU) and LJP. Kushwaha, a former JDU leader who had quit the party in 2013, months after suspension on disciplinary grounds, had floated his own outfit and joined the NDA while Nitish Kumar's party was out of the BJP-led coalition. (With inputs from PTI)